Welles, Thomas E.

Thomas E. (Everett) Welles was born in Mystic, Connecticut in 1835.  He moved South in 1875, settling in Pensacola in 1878 where he began working for the Pensacola Fish Company.  He married Caroline Brown Cobb on June 24, 1883.

  &nnsp; In partnership with E. E. Saunders, they incorporated the E. E. Saunders Company around 1883 with Welles as the manager.  This company would grow to employ 1,000 men and operate ice and fish meal plants with annual payrolls exceeding $100,000.

  &nnsp; He also formed a joint venture with Sol Cahn, titled the Welles-Cahn Company.

  &nnsp; Welles also served as Vice President of the Citizens National Bank and as a director of the Peoples National Bank.  He was a president of the Gulf City Coffee Company, of the Yough Men's Business League and the Good Government League.  He was a member of the Knights of Pythias, Knights of Honor, the Improved Order of Red Men, Woodmen of the World and the Masons.  [Information from Henry Clay Armstrong's History of Escambia County and from Pensapedia]

  &nnsp; This photograph was part of the travelling statewide exhibit on Jewish history in Florida, titled MOSAIC in 1991.  At each exhibition, certain panels were changed to include photographs and objects loaned by local Jewish families and congregations.  While at UWF in 1991, the panels told stories of Pensacola and Milton families.